This invention relates to fishing and more particularly to methods and apparatus for illuminating fishing lures to make them more attractive to fish.
It is well known that fish often use visual information to find their edible prey. Certain fishing lures employ visual effects to enhance their attractiveness to fish. These include reflective metal spinners, various colors, and hair, and streamers with various shapes and textures. When drift fishing for swordfish at night, a large dead squid fished about 100 feet down is a preferred bait. Attaching a chemically activated light stick, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,306 issued Jun. 16, 1992 to Van Moer, positioned above the ten foot leader greatly increases the probability of attracting a fish, even though the squid itself is not illuminated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,951 issued Jan. 5, 1998 to Fruchey discloses a fish lure with a hollow body having a light emitting diode within the body for attracting fish to the lure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,450 issued Jun. 2, 1998 to Young discloses a fish lure with a laser within the body of the lure for illuminating a part of the lure to attract fish.
Providing a battery operated light source within the lure as disclosed by Fruchey and Young greatly increases the cost of the lure. Lures are frequently lost during fishing by hooking onto obstructions or breaking off or cutting off by fish. Users are reluctant to pay for expensive lures that are so easily lost. When fishing, it is common to change lures frequently until a lure is found that attracts strikes under the current fishing conditions. Users are reluctant to pay for a plurality of different lures if they are all made more expensive by their light emitting properties. It may be more desirable to illuminate more of the lure than can be achieved when the light source is within the lure.